The shadow clone began sweeping the surrounding area at speed.
Meanwhile, Ronin's real body wasn't idle either.
His En training hadn't reached the point where it could help him scout the surroundings. For now, his En could only extend two to three meters.
That was because he hadn't focused his training on En.
The size of one's En didn't necessarily represent strength—but anyone who could maintain a truly large En was definitely powerful.
In ninjutsu, there were also sensory techniques.
But for Ronin at his current stage, the most useful "sensor" was—of all things—the Sharingan.
Yes, the Sharingan.
The other sensory-type techniques he knew had at least A-rank difficulty.
For example, the Third Hokage's Telescope Technique was A-rank.
Nagato's Rain Tiger at Will Technique was also A-rank difficulty.
As for Karin's Mind's Eye of the Kagura, that was a kekkei genkai—Ronin couldn't use it. The Byakugan was also a kekkei genkai. Malice sensing was the Nine-Tails' ability.
And then there were Aburame clan insects, Inuzuka clan dogs and smell, Gaara's sand, and so on.
In short: either the technique's difficulty was too high, or it was a special secret art requiring specific tools.
So after all the counting, the only thing Ronin could reliably use was still his Sharingan.
Every doll carried Nen. Once Ronin activated the Sharingan, Nen within a certain range couldn't hide from its gaze.
The Sharingan's perception was only a little inferior to the Byakugan; compared to normal people, it was already superhuman.
So the shadow clone was using the Sharingan's insight to search nearby for Nen users.
Sure enough, there weren't only "Nobunaga dolls." More dolls were hidden in the shadows.
They had no eyes, looked bland and unremarkable, and even had the same face—like they were mass-produced in a factory.
Ronin marked every doll location the clone found on a map, and also recorded the Nobunaga doll's movement route.
Kurapika stared at the map, combining Ronin's information about Omokage with the marked positions and analyzing where Omokage might be hiding.
Very quickly, his gaze locked onto a church on the outskirts.
"Here—he isn't even trying to hide," Kurapika said, tapping the church's location with serious certainty.
"A trap," Ronin agreed, equally serious—then his tone shifted. "But whether it's a trap or not, our priority is still the same: take back the Scarlet Eyes the Nobunaga doll is carrying!"
"Are you confident?" Kurapika couldn't help worrying.
The prophecy was like a sword hanging over their heads. No one knew when it would drop.
"Yeah." Ronin gave only a simple answer—and left the room.
The shadow clone's target was the hidden dolls.
Ronin's real body's target was the Nobunaga doll.
In a long alley, a tall, skinny doll hidden behind the Nobunaga doll kept itself ready to fight.
But as it passed a wall covered in graffiti, a streak of lightning suddenly fell from above!
Lightning Style: Dance of 100 Volts!
Still one of the Raikage's signature techniques. With a single strike, the doll's neck was severed before it could even turn its head.
Its eyeless head flew off—and before it could hit the ground, fireballs followed and burned the head to ash in midair.
Fire Style: Phoenix Sage Fire Jutsu.
But as the doll's body collapsed, even more dolls surged toward the position where Ronin's shadow clone had appeared.
Hidden atop a rooftop, Ronin had also entered Sharingan state. He swept his gaze around, then looked down—and suddenly stepped forward, dropping from about five stories high.
Five floors was no threat to him now.
Ronin landed at the mouth of an alley.
And walking calmly inside that alley was the Nobunaga doll fitted with Scarlet Eyes.
No unnecessary words.
The instant Ronin hit the ground, arcs of electricity crackled over his body.
The number of dolls Omokage could control was higher than Ronin had expected.
From the shadow clone's battles with the mass-produced dolls, it was clear that aside from special ones—like the dolls made from Troupe members—most dolls were only slightly above ordinary people.
But they all shared one terrifying trait:
At close range, making eye contact would steal the target's eyes.
The clone had tested that mechanism with its "life" to confirm it.
Specialist abilities really couldn't be judged by common sense.
But now that he understood the mechanism, Ronin had only one thought as he dropped down:
If he was fast enough, the hidden dolls couldn't catch him—and they couldn't force close-range eye contact with him!
Lightning Release Chakra Mode!
Ronin's chakra shifted rapidly into lightning nature as he formed seals.
This was a secret art passed down through Kumogakure's Raikage line. The Third Raikage used it to wrestle evenly with the Eight-Tails. The Fourth Raikage used it at speeds second only to Flying Thunder God.
Only the Fifth Raikage failed to learn it due to insufficient chakra.
For Ronin, chakra quantity wasn't the problem—but duration was.
One minute.
After repeated testing, that was the optimal use window he'd calculated.
After one minute, he would exit Lightning Release Chakra Mode, still retaining some chakra and avoiding bodily overload.
And one minute was enough.
Because this was the technique known as the Strongest Lightning Armor.
The Nobunaga doll sensed danger the moment Ronin landed. It lowered its stance, mimicking the real Nobunaga's draw-slash opening.
But in the next instant, the figure wrapped in lightning at the alley entrance vanished.
Without a spread-out En, the doll didn't know what portion of Nobunaga's Nen ability it actually possessed.
But a Nobunaga without En was incomplete.
To Ronin, the doll's movements were slow.
Ronin's lightning-wreathed hand shot straight for the doll's head.
Rip.
A flash of electricity—
and the Nobunaga doll's head was plucked off effortlessly.
Lightning Release Chakra Mode didn't just increase Ronin's speed. By using lightning chakra to stimulate his cells, it massively boosted his physical strength as well.
The doll felt like it was made of paper.
Only after Ronin stopped deeper in the alley did the Nobunaga doll's sword finally swing toward the entrance.
Thud.
The doll collapsed.
Ronin glanced back once—then lightning flickered and he vanished again.
Dolls appeared rapidly on rooftops all around.
But when they looked down at the headless Nobunaga doll, they froze—like machines that had suddenly lagged.
~~~
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